Travelers may have different goals for their trips. Some may wish to get from point A to point B in the least amount of time. Others may want a travel experience that takes into account scenery or historical places of interest. However, car navigation systems typically cater to those who want the fastest or easiest driving path. At best, a typical route planner may provide a preference for a certain road surface (e.g., dirt vs. concrete) or “green level” (e.g., urbanscape vs. rural). Meanwhile there exists a variety of routes between points A and B, many of which would provide a more customized and more satisfying trip for the user.
For example, given a starting point of the Portland International Airport (Airport) in Portland, Oreg. and a destination of the O'Bryant Square (Square) in downtown Portland, a conventional route planner may propose a “fast path” that takes the traveler along various relatively unremarkable freeways and the like so as to get the traveler from the Airport to the Square in the shortest time possible. However, an out-of-town visitor may want to see a few cultural aspects of Portland, if the hassle is not too great, before arriving at the Square. With conventional route planners the out-of-town visitor is likely left to tedious manual planning if she or he is committed to seeing something off the predictable beaten path, such as the Portland Museum of Science and Industry (Museum), despite the Museum being only a short jaunt south from the predictable “fast path” between the Airport and the Square. Even with manual planning, the visitor is still likely to arrive at a less than optimal path considering the visitor may be unfamiliar with what points-of-interest are truly worth experiencing.
Also, while there are databases of audio tours, walking tours, running paths, and biking paths, such utilities may only recommend entire routes. In other words, these “canned” tours are not built based on a specific user's preferences such as tour start and stop locations (which in all likelihood do not coincide with the “canned” tour's start and stop locations). For example, the canned routes are not easily adaptable to a larger journey the traveler may be making from point x to point y, where perhaps only a portion of the canned tour might be practically included in the user's trip.
As a result, many users may forego the opportunity to mix interesting travel experiences with practical travel requirements.